AN ALBANIAN immigrant being deported from the UK by cruise liner was hacked to death by the ship’s massive propellers after jumping overboard in a bid to swim back to Britain.

The men jumped from the Stena Britannica as it travelled to the Hook of Holland

Artur Doda, 24, and Leonard Isufaj, 27, both from Tirana, Albania, were spotted leaping from one of the world's largest ferries, the Stena Britannica, as it pulled out of the port of Harwich, Essex.

The pair were being deported after they were discovered in the back of a lorry along with 13 others of mixed nationalities which had been randomly selected for X-ray as it entered the port in the early hours of February 26 last year.

It is thought the group had broken into the vehicle without the driver's knowledge as part of an organised people-smuggling ring.

Just 10 minutes into the ship's journey back to the Hook of Holland - at around 9.50am - the pair jumped overboard, apparently with the aim of swimming back to shore.

But both were killed almost instantaneously.

An inquest yesterday in Chelmsford heard that Mr Doda was sliced to death by the "machete-like" motion of the ship's propeller and Mr Isufaj drowned after they were both sucked underwater almost immediately after entering the water.

The inquest heard how the water would have appeared deceptively calm, giving the impression that it would be possible to swim to shore.

Inspector Christopher Willis, from Essex Police, said: "To swim to land with those tides and the water temperature would have been nigh-on impossible - an Olympic swimmer would have struggled."

He said that a tide heading out to sea at about four knots met another northerly tide at about the point where the men jumped.